Action for Development

Our Commitment

Work with communities towards a brighter future

Education

We believe that education is a fundamental element of emancipation and empowerment. Through education of disabled and street children and through professional training, we help Afghans reclaim a brighter future.

Health

In a country where access to healthcare is severely lacking, we provide healthcare services to thousands each month. We also offer professional training to healthcare specialists.

EMPOWERMENT

Empowerment allows individuals and groups to become actors in decision making and project planning, through access to information, rewards and power. Our actions’ goal is to use empowerment as a tool to fight poverty and reinforce development.

EMERGENCY RESPONSE

AfD responds to emergency situations by providing access to vital resources such as drinking water, food and housing to the most vulnerable.

Contribute to the empowerment of those who need it the most

Afghanistan

Afghanistan is a country rich in natural beauty and millenial history. At the crossroads of the commercial roads connecting ancient empires, it was a hub of economic and cultural exchanges.

Unfortunately, the country has been devastated by decades of war. After the fall of the Taliban in 2001, a group of Afghan professionals founded Action for Development to assist local populations in the reconstruction of civil society and to allow communities to achieve a brighter future.

Since 2001, Afghanistan has made remarkable achievements. Infant mortality has fallen from 25% to 10%, a majority of Afghans now has access to healthcare and women and girls can work and study. However, much work remains to be done in order to insure peace and prosperity to the country.

Poverty

55% of Afghans live under the national poverty line (35%) or are vulnerable to fall under this line (20%)

Preventable maternal mortality

83 % of maternal mortality could be avoided through healthcare and medical training

Female illiteracy

83% of women aged 15 or more do not have basic literacy skills

Slums

63% of afghans from urban areas live in slums

Our projects

School for children with disabilities

The school, specifically designed to help children cope with their disabilities, daily provides basic education, food and transportation to 400 blind, deaf and/or speech impaired boys and girls of Kabul.

Comprehensive Health Center

Inaugurated in 2013, AfD’s health center in rural Kabul serves approximately 1000 patients monthly. The CHC offers affordable treatment for poor patients and has opened a training section for healthcare professionals.

Doctors’ training – Reproductive health

25 health care professionals working on the field in Afghanistan were brought to Geneva for additional training on reproductive health. Health care professionals in Afghanistan face a great lack of training in reproductive health due to the Taliban rule.

Back to School for Street Children

10% of Afghan children are forced to peddle to support themselves and their families. AfD is implementing a semi-formal school program adapted to their reality to give them access to a basic education.

WASH

AfD is a contributing member of UNICEF’s WASH (Water, Sanitation and Hygiene) initiative, providing sanitation facilities, clean water systems and hygiene education.

Disaster response

Following landslides that killed thousands in the province of Badakhshan, AfD has distributed water filters, heaters and wood. This assistance will greatly improve families chances of surviving the harsh winter and avoiding diseases.

midwifery training

211 midwives and 31 midwife trainers have improved their capacity in 4 provinces since 2014. Another 120 midwives are expected to graduate from the program in the province of Bamiyan in 2016.

Advocacy

AfD uses its consultative status from the ECOSOC to advocate for the rights of Afghanistan’s most vulnerable. We do this by planning awareness-raising events at the United Nations Geneva headquarters and by advising those drafting UN resolutions.

Testimonials

“Being a midwife means that you need continuous training to keep in touch with all news related to health and treatment guidelines. Therefore, I joined the midwifery training project supported by AfD. The program was very informative and I learned of many new issues that enhanced and refined my knowledge.I’m really proud of my profession as a midwife, which I love, and I’ll continue advocating my message by providing services to women in need”

“I am studying in the 6th grade at the Rahyab school for disabled. Among all subjects, I like algebra the most. We are seven in our family. My sister, two of my brothers and I are deaf. My father is a poor man. He works hard but cannot earn enough money for transportation fees and our house expenses. My parents do not know how to communicate by sign language, and therefore I am very happy to have classmates with whom I can communicate.”

“I have been working as a volunteer education consultant for the National Deaf School almost from beginning of the school. This helped me learn more about deaf people. I am also a member of the developing Afghan sign language, again since a long time. I could say I spent my life working for the deaf and supporting them in different aspect of their life. This my vision (willing and wishes). I hope to one day see Afghan deaf people reach a high quality education and a better life.”

Latest news

We are happy to announce that Action for Development signed a new partnership with IRD (Interactive Research & Development) in March 2018. IRD was founded in Karachi, Pakistan and is a research and health delivery organization that works in over 15 countries. Its goal is to address global health delivery gaps through innovation and research[…]

Action for Development would like to introduce its new Country Director in Afghanistan, Mr. Ismail Qarizada, who will manage the country office in Kabul, foster external partnerships, and oversee projects implementation. Mr. Qarizada brings extensive experience in Project Management, having served many development organisations including the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC), various United[…]

Action for Development was able to provide emergency winterization aid to around 40 families in Kabul last week. Because of the ongoing conflict in Afghanistan, a lot of families are forced to flee their homes in the different provinces and many of them end up in camps in and around Kabul. Unfortunately the suffering does[…]

Why did you decide to work for AfD’s school for street children? There is a proverb which says ‘if you see someone fallen, take his hand and help him stand’. In Afghanistan there are many children who are on the streets all day, so they need help and guidance. When I see them working on[…]

With our new partnership with the Global Nutrition Cluster, AfD is taking its first steps towards scaling up nutrition in our health programs. The new report by AfD’s Public Health Nutritionist Alison Farnham, presents the current situation regarding the nutritional assessment of children under 5 years old at the Shahid Abdul Razaq Comprehensive Health Centre[…]

The Quarterly Report of our School for Street Children in Kabul is out! With a bigger classroom and more school equipment, the number of children attending our school doubled to 42 between July and September 2017. In our classes, the children are taught basic skills through playful means, while their basic needs are accommodated in[…]

AfD conducted the first round of its midwives capacity building programme in Panjsher province in November 2017. Twenty midwives from different districts of the province were brought together to the center of Panjsher where they could enhance their knowledge on specific pregnancy and birth-related issues, for instance Eclampsia, Pre-eclampsia, managing third-stage labour, and newborn care.[…]

It is with great pleasure that we would like to invite you to our “traditional” Christmas Fundraising Sale on Tuesday, November 28th 2017. The sale takes place from 9am to 6pm in the lobby of the Geneva Ecumenical Center located at Route de Ferney 150 in Geneva. The end of the year is rapidly approaching and[…]

AfD participated for the first time in the annual Communities’ Fair of the International School of Geneva on 18 October 2017. The International school of Geneva encourages its students to engage in various activities, including charitable causes as part of the curriculum. Every year, the school holds a Communities’ Fair, where student groups, companies, organizations[…]

We are happy to announce that Action for Development signed a new partnership with the Global Nutrition Cluster in October 2017. International humanitarian response is coordinated by a system that is comprised of individual groups categorized by areas of responsibility, known as “clusters”. The Global Nutrition Cluster (GNC) is headed by UNICEF and aims to safeguard[…]